While perusing the left side of the internet I came across a surprising and poignant review of A Mighty Heart (free subscription required; here is a free site), the movie about Daniel Pearl. The review was written by Judea Pearl, Daniel’s father:

For Americans, Danny is a symbol of one of our very best national instincts: the desire to extend a warm hand of friendship and dialogue to faraway lands and peoples. And for anyone who is proud of their heritage or faith, Danny’s last words, “I am Jewish,” showed that it is possible to find dignity in one’s identity even in the darkest of moments. Traces of these ideas are certainly evident in A Mighty Heart, and I hope viewers will leave the theater inspired by them.

At the same time, I am worried that A Mighty Heart falls into a trap Bertrand Russell would have recognized: the paradox of moral equivalence, of seeking to extend the logic of tolerance a step too far. You can see traces of this logic in the film’s comparison of Danny’s abduction with Guantanamo–it opens with pictures from the prison–and its comparison of Al Qaeda militants with CIA agents.

You can also see it in the comments of the movie’s director, Michael Winterbottom, who wrote on The Washington Post’s website that A Mighty Heart and his previous film The Road to Guantanamo “are very similar. Both are stories about people who are victims of increasing violence on both sides. There are extremists on both sides who want to ratchet up the levels of violence and hundreds of thousands of people have died because of this.”

Drawing a comparison between Danny’s murder and the detainment of suspects in Guantanamo is precisely what the killers wanted, as expressed in both their e-mails and the murder video. Obviously Winterbottom did not mean to echo their sentiments, and certainly not to justify their demands or actions. Still, I am concerned that aspects of his movie will play into the hands of professional obscurers of moral clarity.

I think Mr. Pearl may be a little too trusting in believing that Winterbottom does not subscribe to those moral relativist tenets. It’s ashame that Hollywood usually adds such political indoctrination into their product.

One sentence caught my eye, though:

Moral relativism died with Daniel Pearl, in Karachi, on January 31, 2002.

It saddens me that it took Daniel’s death for some to come to this realization. Hopefully many others learned that lesson too.

Judea Pearl is president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation, an organization committed to interfaith dialogue, and co-editor of I am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl.

As mentioned by Dan Patrick.

America is not at war.
The Marine Corps is at war.
America is at the mall.

Picture taken last January in Ramadi, Iraq.

No, this isn’t the Onion. This is a bona fide headline — and real news no less! — from the Daily Record: HERO CABBIE: I KICKED BURNING TERRORIST SO HARD IN BALLS THAT I TORE A TENDON.

Just a quick update on ‘Operation Blackhawk,’ our name for LST’s adoption of a cavalry scout platoon in Iraq.

My little brother, the platoon leader, is home for a two-week leave, so I’ll be posting lots of photos soon. In the meantime, take a look at the latest edition of the Taji Times, the base’s newspaper. Flip to Page 15, and read about the good work our Blackhawk boys are doing in bringing modern healthcare to the town of Sab Al Bor.

Or flip to Page 19, and read about the Estonian infantry platoon attached to Blackhawk Troop. (The troopers call them the “Stones.”) Money quote from the Estonian defense minister, who visited his troops in June:

We’re not very numerous and our country is not very big, but we suffered under totalitarianism for 50 years and we don’t want that to ever be repeated.

All that, and plenty more, in the June 28 issue of Taji Times.

Or learning to read the story before opening mouth and inserting foot.

Mother Donates Eggs to Infertile 7-Year-Old Daughter (FOXNEWS)

Melanie Boivin, 35, from Montreal, has placed 21 of her eggs on ice for Flavie Boivin to use when she grows up.

Flavie has Turner syndrome, a condition in which one of the two X chromosomes normally carried by women is missing. It almost always causes infertility, though women who have the condition can conceive with donated eggs.
(snip)
By freezing her eggs while she is still in her mid-30s and fertile, Ms Boivin hopes to give Flavie a good chance of having children.

This could come from Hillary Clinton

Chavez Tells Private Hospitals to Lower Costs or Face Nationalization (SHORTNEWS)

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez announced on Tuesday that if private medical clinics and hospitals in Venezuela fail to reduce health care costs than they will be nationalized.

“If the owners of the private clinics don’t want to obey the laws, then the private clinics will be nationalized,” Chavez announced. Under Chavez, thousands of doctors have been sent to poor areas where they provide free health care.

And this time they are going to link it to the Hate Crimes Bill

Plan to Restore Fairness Doctrine Still on Track, Analyst Says (cnsnews)

Liberal efforts to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine are “completely on track,” and Democrats intend to push for the measure by linking talk radio to “hate crimes,” according to a conservative media analyst. (Cliff Kincaid, editor of the conservative group Accuracy in Media)
(snip)
Kincaid asserted that the Democrats were in the meantime paving the way for the return of the Fairness Doctrine by requesting a federal study of how licensed broadcasting facilities have been used to “convey messages of bigotry or hatred, creating a climate of fear and inciting individuals to commit hate crimes.”

Rather than argue that conservative talk shows are one-sided, he said, Democrats in Congress will assert “that talk radio is hateful and causing injury and death to people.”

Kincaid pointed to 1995, when President Clinton, he said, “tried to blame the Oklahoma City bombing on conservative talk radio.” The analyst also cited the case of talk show host Don Imus, who was fired for denigrating a women’s basketball team on the air.

I meant to link to this essay yesterday but was away from the computer most of the day doing Independence Day things. We had our annual Lindale Park Independence Day Parade. One of the more unusual entries in the parade this year was an “art car” covered in pictures of peaches, each one with George W. Bush’s pic in the center. Impeach Bush was the theme. Get it? Of course they had the obligatory statue of Bush giving the Nazi salute. There were a few boos but mostly the protest car was ignored. I guess the “Bohemians” are being pushed out of The Heights and are moving our way.

Several LST contributors have linked to the essays from Bill Whittle of Eject!Eject!Eject! in the past. His Tribes essay (R-rated language) is a classic. This particular essay was written July 4th, 2003. If you haven’t read it in its entirety it’s well worth the time:

Today, on her 227th birthday, the United States stands astride the world as the most economically, militarily and culturally powerful force history has yet revealed.

Why?

Well, one reason is because here in America, a practically broke 19 year old kid can be the President of a Corporation, that’s why. Of course some of these fail. Most of them fail, spectacularly fail, flaming wreckage, oh-the-humanity failures. I’ve had many of these, personally. More will no doubt come. It’s easy to succeed in a country that lets you fail this often and this easily.

The ingredients for greatness, goodness, success, happiness and prosperity are not hard to find, and yet so much of the world is a political and economic disaster.

Again: why?

Because folks, it ain’t the ingredients. It’s the recipe.

So we’re off on a little all-American road trip, this time to figure out why our economy, when sick, is stronger than anyone else’s, when healthy. To see if we can figure out how 300 million strangers, all the troublemakers and upstarts from every nation in the world, can come to one vast continent, be given more freedom than any people before or since, and manage to become the most prosperous, powerful, tightly-knit nation in history. And how come we invent everything, too? Must be something in the water out there.

We’re gonna go find out. Let’s just hop in the car and see if we can’t chase down that American Dream. You know the one: Think of a better way. Take a chance. Start a business. Put in the extra time. Work hard. Buy a house. Live a better life than your parents and a poorer one than your kids. And do it all in a place where you can be free and happy and safe.

America is a success machine. Yes, it’s easy to fail in America. It is also the easiest place in the world to succeed, to do the big things — become wealthy or famous — or just carve out a comfortable little patch of ground to spend an afternoon barbequing or watch your teenage kid drive off in their brand new used car.

It’s a siren song for many people, this idea of freedom, this dream of making your own life according to a script you wrote in your head. But it’s not for everybody. It requires some courage, at times. It demands hard work. It can challenge your bland security. It’s not cheap, this American Dream – nor should it be. And it lives and breathes optimism. Without that you’re sunk.

So y’all hop in the back and I’ll roll down the top. It’s a gorgeous day, we’ve got the Beach Boys on the stereo turned up to 11 and we’re hitting the road looking for the three things that make America hum. And no crybabies! We don’t have the time or the energy to waste on mean-spirited, bitter complainers – people who are so filled with gloom and doom that It’ll never work is stitched into the slack elastic of their unchanged underwear.

Whiners. Defeatists. Pessimists. Losers. Big “L” on their forehead. Can you think of another word for gloomy, reality-challenged crybaby that begins with the letter “L”?

***

Anyone that has been to an airport in the past few years knows how much the security has increased. Terror alerts, extra baggage inspection, shoes removed, cars searched and long lines make for a not so happy time. But hey, you want to be safe, so you put up with a few inconveniences, no?

So imagine Sarita Peterson’s surprise when she returned to D/FW International from her business trip.

A North Texas woman returned home from a business trip and found her car on blocks in the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport parking garage.

“They took the tires, wheels, lug nuts,” she said. “They did leave me with two broken jacks.”

Peterson said she paid $17 per day to park in short-term parking because she thought it would be the safest place to park. She said she’ll end up paying nearly $1,000 after this incident.

The police spokesperson was so supportive.

“There’s crime everywhere,” airport spokesman David Magana said. “There is not a police department in the world that can prevent every crime.”

Uh, sure. But she is going to get some relief.

Peterson will have to wait until Monday for an insurance adjustor to look at her car since it’s a holiday weekend.

An airport official said Peterson will not have to pay $17 per day until then.

Isn’t that special?

Does a human do what in the woods?  RITGLMAO

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